This invention relates to sealed, through partition terminals for electrochemical cells, and more particularly to such terminals for lead-acid batteries.
A prevalent problem with terminal seals in lead-acid batteries is corrosion at the terminal, allowing acid to propagate past the seal interface. A standard design approach in the past has been to extend the terminal seal life by making the seal interface between the lead component or terminal and the battery container as long as possible. The configuration most used in the industry is a lead terminal provided with a ribbed outer surface that is insert molded into the plastic battery container. This engineering approach has been generally successful but suffers from the drawback of inherent expense stemming from the complicated container molding process and the added assembly cost of the battery.
An improvement in this known terminal system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,178 (Brizendine et al.) which discloses the use of an elastic adhesive material bonded to the ribbed lead insert and making sealing contact with the enshrouding plastic molding. Furthermore, a harder, higher conductivity brass insert connector is insert molded in one end of the lead connector to improve the terminal connection and current carrying capability. Nevertheless, this system still suffers from being relatively expensive to produce.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sealed, through partition terminal for an electrochemical cell which is relatively inexpensive to produce and has high sealing reliability.
It is a further object to produce a sealed, through partition terminal for a lead-acid cell having a high current carrying capability, and which is easy to assemble in a continuous production process.